No hits, one error

By now, you have heard that Cincinnati Reds play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman is out on his asterisk for having uttered a vile slur when he THOUGHT he was off the air the other night.

Yesterday was National Radio Day and all of us who were ever lucky enough to squeeze out sparks on an AM or FM transmitter looked back on the days when we were, in all cases, younger, in most cases, slimmer and hairier, and in many cases much less wise than we are today. 

I'll be honest. You will have to look and look to find someone who ever worked in broadcasting and did not have a blooper moment or even an open mic boo-boo. It happens to everyone. There are thousands of hours of blooper tapes available to listen to.

But here's the difference with Brennaman. He did not know the mic was hot when he said some town was one of the "(slur deleted) capitals of the world" and that was his fault. The first lesson you learn around any mic is to assume that it is always on.  If he had just said, "That town is a dump" he would only have to apologize to the Chamber of Commerce of the calumniated city.  If he had said, "That town is a goddamn dump," he would have had to apologize to the city and to whatever faith he belongs to.

But saying that some city is a (slur) capital of the world is just stupid. There are no such capitals, just as there are no jobs anymore for Thom Brennaman, who is suspended from his job with the Reds and fired from his job doing the NFL for FOX.

It always seem to come as a surprise to some people, Thom, but it's perfectly okay to be gay and your narrow view of the world doesn't change how wide it is, with room for everyone.

It's so 1950 to put people down for their lives.

And another thing - enough with the fulsome apology and the "This is not who I am" remarks. If you say stuff like that, that IS who you are. Maybe we don't like it, and maybe you don't either, but it's like you eat a hamburger and say, "A guy who eats a hamburger is not who I am."

America has come a long way in many fields, but we are way behind the civilized world in the field of apologies. Say you know how you were wrong, acknowledge who was hurt and how, and outline your plans to be better in the future.  That's all it takes. No need to tell us what kind of person you are when your words have already done that.